How Big is Too Big?

 

In Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way, author Susan McCutcheon explains several reasons why pregnant women are often suggested inductions or cesarean sections by their birth teams, one such reason being the baby's perceived size in ultrasound.  She points out that a baby being truly too big for the mother to birth naturally ocurrs in about 1/2500 pregnancies. She encourages doctors to consider what Williams Obstetrics wrote: there are "no current methods to assess fetal size accurately" (2018, pg.262), and how a couple can respond to being told that their doctor wishes to induce because they do not want baby to get 'too big.'  

Other scenarios that can prompt suggestions to schedule an induction or cesarean are 'irregular' labor, 'prolonged' labor, Cephalopelvic disproportion ('pelvis too small'), and 'fetal distress' detected by monitor.  McCutcheon goes on to give more reading suggestions and stories of couples' experiences in these scenarios.   Read McCutcheon's stories of couples who have experienced these, and how they responded to their birth teams' suggestions. 

And check out these WOW birth stories!

Photo by historicalfindings

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Food Log evaluation

Image
 Below I give suggestions for the following first food log of a student.  What would you add to the suggestions? My comments:  "It's great to get a baseline established, and you've got a good starting point.  A few suggestions: let's add a protein to each snack, fortify what we can, and forget about what looks like a traditional 'lunch' or 'dinner--think in terms of nutrients in.  We're aiming for 85-100 grams of protein a day, with as many 100 gram days as we can. "Try some of these:  Trailmix and any kind of nut (add to your yogurt too) cheese sticks, any kind of cheese beef jerky whole grain toast and cream cheese + jam/ honey  hardboiled eggs or scrambled egg bites granola made with lots of seeds and nuts, dried fruit (ask for my recipe) rotisserie chicken, deboned and cut into pieces fish sticks Think more about getting enough of the nutrients than if it feels/ looks like a true 'breakfast' or 'midnight snack.'
Read more

When the doctor brings up augmentation

Image
  When the doctor brings up augmentation   Augmenting (speeding up/ initiating) labor is a discussion that is bound to happen between doctors and families in a high percent of pregnancies and labors, whether it is at weeks 38/39 or during early or active labor.   Sweeping membranes  (separating the amniotic sac from the uterine wall) or breaking the waters to speed labor may be suggested.  The use of oxytocin to initiate or stimulate contractions is quite common as well, but is  found to increase Cesarean rates .  BioMedCentral.com's 2022  article on labor dystocia  ('slow labor') concludes that a healthy respect of mothers with slower labors is key, and that doctors generally shouldn't augment with oxytocin because of the increase of Cesare an rates.     My encouragement is that families read about these trends and options well before they are in late pregnancy so that they know what kinds of questions to ask should they be encouraged to speed up their labors.  Also, d
Read more

Nutrition: Aiming for a well rounded, protein-rich diet in pregnancy

Image
 Dr. Bradley often references Dr. Brewer and his recommendations for a whole food, well-rounded, and protein-rich diet during pregnancy.  Other respected organizations also support Dr. Bradley's recommendation of 85-100 grams of protein per day.   Expecting mothers can use protein counters and charts to understand their baseline, and can work together with their coach/ husband to maintain 85-100 g per day.   Keep a 3-day food log to get a baseline.  Record all foods and beverages, and have your birth coach look over them to find ways to add nutrient-dense foods and reduce unhelpful elements.  Here's an example:
Read more